Prove itself it did. During the course of the 100 hour ground war the Challenger had completely reversed its reliability problems and achieved an enviable serviceability record; a testament to the hard work and dedication of the support crews who keep these vehicles going. In combat it was the superior of anything it came up against and by the end of the three day offensive Challengers accounted for some 200 Iraqi tanks destroyed or captured along with numerous armoured and ‘soft’ vehicles.

During the offensive one Challenger finally laid to rest the doubts anyone had over the capability of the type with a single shot. That shot was made over a staggering range of 5,100m (3 miles) with a Depleted Uranium (DU) round – the longest confirmed tank kill in history!

Footage of the British Army's new AJAX armoured fighting vehicle (AFV).

A facility has been opened in Wales to support the assembly, integration and testing of the British Army's new AJAX armoured fighting vehicles.

589 vehicles of 6 variations have been ordered. The video shows the prototype for the armed reconnaissance variant (Ajax). Other variants include a reconnaissance support variant (Ares), a support repair variant (Apollo), an engineer reconnaissance variant (Argus), a command variant (Athena) and a recovery variant (Atlas).

Watch troops from the United Kingdom, Estonia, Poland and Spain demonstrate artillery, armour and infantry capability on exercise Venerable Gauntlet as they, along with 10 other nations, prepare to take over NATO’s spearhead force, the VJTF, in 2017.

At the Sennelager training ground in Germany 3,000 troops from 14 NATO nations take part in exercise Venerable Gauntlet. The exercise brings together units from different nations that will form NATO’s VJTF, or Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, Land component from 2017. The VJTF is NATO’s spearhead force designed to react to a crisis situation at short notice.Footage includes shots of artillery, infantry and armor demonstrations, as well as aerial shots of armored vehicles moving across the training ground.

Army chiefs are planning to slash the number of frontline tanks by up to a third, leaving Britain with fewer tanks than Serbia.

Under the plan, one of the army's three tank regiments will see all this 56 Challenger 2s replaced with Ajax fighting vehicles. The cut would leave the army with only about more tanks than traditionally neutral Switzeland . At the other side of the scale, Russia has 2,700 tanks.

The plan, due to be announced in coming months, has alarmed serving and retired commanders and comes as Russia introduces the T-14 Armata -- a new generation of tank that some experts believe has the firepower to defeat any British or American equivalent.